What can you say about soon-to-be-former governor of New Jersey Chris Christie? At one time, it seemed his star was rising, that he was destined for the White House. That is the historical moment to which Christie apparently clings.

Christie, who leaves office—and almost certainly any political future—on January 16th, believes that if President Trump had not run in 2016, he’d be president today.

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The New York Post reports:

Outgoing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he believes he would “absolutely” be the president if Donald Trump had decided not to run, according to a report Sunday.

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“It’s incredibly frustrating to think to yourself, ‘Wow, if this guy were not in the race, we’d win this thing,’” Christie told NJ.com, describing internal polling by his campaign. “And I absolutely believe if Trump had not gotten into the race, I think we would have won.”

There is no reason to believe that Christie would have won the GOP primary, let alone the White House in 2016.

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By that point, Christie had made two “unforgivable” missteps that made him toxic to Republican voters.

The first, of course, was his well-publicized “hug” with Obama following Hurricane Sandy; his subsequent gushing and fawning over Obama didn’t help. At the time, the right was just as avidly opposed to Obama as the left is to Trump now.

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Christie capped off the “hug” (that wasn’t a hug) moment by gushing about Obama.

Watch:

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The optics of the supposed “hug” and the gushing were anathema to Republican voters who saw this not only as a betrayal but as a slap in the face. Christie tried to salvage the situation in a town hall meeting.

But Christie was facing other problems with the Republican base. He was too centrist, too supportive of radical Islam, and too dismissive of our legitimate concerns regarding immigration, Common Core, and ObamaCare.